No need for military draft, Army general says

Demand for National Guardsmen in Iraq to decline next year.

Posted: Thursday, September 08, 2005

A military draft is out of the question, despite the mounting pressure the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and hurricane relief efforts along the Gulf coast are putting on the United States' all-volunteer force, an Army lieutenant general said Thursday.

Lt. Gen. John F. Kimmons, Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, acknowledged "the pressures of the last four years have stressed an all-volunteer force."

But he said it's untrue "there are recruiting challenges that will force us to return to practices of a bygone era. We will not."

Kimmons made his remarks at a breakfast organized by the Military Affairs Council of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Sunday.

He said today's young people serving in the military have become "our new greatest generation" and they continue to re-enlist despite the war.

The Army is progressing in its reorganization to create smaller, more mobile combat brigade teams that can respond more quickly and efficiently than large divisions can, he said. Eventually, the Army hopes to build a force of 43 brigades.

"Until we do that, it puts a heavier burden on the guard and reserves," Kimmons said.

The new brigade structure will eventually take pressure off National Guard units that have been activated. Of the 160,000 Army forces in Iraq, Kimmons said about 60 percent are active-duty while the remaining 40 percent are Guard and Army reserve forces.

That percentage of Guard and reserve forces should drop to about 25 percent in the coming year, he said.

Kimmons said moving Iraq toward a "legitimate, popularly elected government" was the only way to nullify the threat posed by insurgents within Iraq. Foreign Islamic extremists flowing into Iraq, however, are unlikely to join the mainstream and will need to be "hunted and eliminated."

He estimated U.S. and Iraqi forces are fighting an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 insurgents and extremists.

Kimmons said those numbers aren't increasing, but there is an "almost inexhaustible supply" of extremists as a result of globalization and disaffected youth in the Arab world who become "isolated and indoctrinated."

"Our enemies are engaged in a total war," he said. "Their time line is measured in decades, not fiscal years. Iraq and Afghanistan, as challenging as those are, are not the endgame."